E-learning education - a five years follow up study

Objectives: E-learning includes technologies which can be used for distance learning but also as a tool for improving teaching and learning processes. After 5 years of experience in e-learning implementation and usage - a study was conducted to evaluate results and compare them with conventional study methods.

Methods: Grades from clinical exercises, essays/presentations and final exams were compared and statistically analysed for each final year using the ANOVA method. A special questionnaire was handed to students who recently undertook the course and those that passed the test 2-5 years ago. The questionnaires compared e-learning with conventional methods and were graded on a scale of 1 to 10. All of these grades were summarized and compared.

Results: There is a significant difference between final year-groups in the clinical exercise and essay/presentation grade (p<0.05). However, the differences between grades in the final exam were not statistically significant; the majority of answers concerning e-learning and conventional methods were in favour of e-learning methods (p<0.05). There is an even greater difference in the perception of retained knowledge acquired by e-learning methods between students who finished the course 2-5 years ago and current ones (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Although e-learning is usually perceived as being „distance learning“, the methods that are used in distance learning can be successfully integrated into the institutionalized teaching process. It has been recognized by this study that students see e-learning as a valuable tool for acquiring and retaining knowledge.

This paper has been suported by MOSES, Project No. 065-0650448-0957